1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a method for loading system locked pre-installation certification upon booting.
2. Description of Related Art
System Locked Pre-installation (SLP), is a procedure used by major Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) computer manufacturers to pre-activate Microsoft's Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Vista operating systems before mass distribution. Currently, there are two different versions of SLP. SLP 2.0 is used for Windows Vista and Server 2008, and SLP 1.0 is used for Windows XP and Server 2003. Operating systems that use SLP 1.0 check for a particular text string in a BIOS of a computer upon booting. If the text string does not match the information stored in the BIOS, the user is prompted to activate his or her copy of the operating system. SLP 2.0 works in a similar manner. One requirement is the existence of an SLP public key and an SLP marker which are stored in a System Licensed Internal Code (SLIC) table in the Advanced Configuration & Power Interface. This effectively “locks” the operating system to the qualified motherboard.
To meet the needs of installing different operating systems, SLP 1.0/SLP 2.0 certification may or may not be enabled in different computers when initializing the BIOS at the factory.
What is needed, is a method for enabling and disabling the SLP certification to overcome the above-described shortcoming.